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Feeling our way to change: How emotions govern our responses to the climate emergency
That most vexing of questions at this point in time is not Is climate change real? Or even How will climate change affect us? Rather, it is Why have we not responded in a manner requisite with the scale of the emergency? Numerous structural barriers have shared the explanatory limelight: the lack of political will cultivated in short-term electoral cycles; the power of the corporate elite; the ‘lock-in’ effects of fossil fuel-based energy infrastructure. These answers are not wrong, but they aren’t fully satisfactory either. These structural arguments, I argue, aren’t getting to the heart of the matter. No matter how complex the social system, the main driver of change is social actors: emotional, intelligent reflexive human beings exercising their agency. The vehicle for social change has always been and will continue to be organized, collective action, but that collective action begins with individuals deciding to act collectively.
What’s emotionality got to do with it?? The main thesis of book is that we have the capacity to navigate the climate emergency in a manner that, while we won’t be unscathed, transforms our current, highly toxic relationship with our climate into one that is more mutually respectful. Future pathways are not yet foretold; those routes will be mapped by actions taken now, individually, and even more so collectively. Historic emissions have already unleashed shifts throughout our biosphere the import of which we are only beginning to understand. Meanwhile, resistance to aggressive mitigation strategies orchestrated by the beneficiaries of the current, fossil-fueled neoliberal capitalist global economy remains formidable, promising further insult to injury as the political struggles to respond to the climate emergency endure. Neither of these realities call for throwing in the towel, however. To the contrary, they are calls to action. Maximizing our capacities to get through this moment through collective engagement, however, must proceed not by ignoring or rejecting our emotionality but by working with it.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: why a book on emotions?
2. What lies ahead: The warnings from the climate sciences
3. Can we do this? Embarking on transformational social change
4. What are emotions and why should we care?
5. Scaling up emotions, from the individual, to social structures and back again
6. Inaction pathways, or why we don’t do the things we don’t do
7. Pathways to action, or doing the hard thing
8. Threading the needle from emotions to transformational social change
Endorsements
“Debra Davidson gives us a hugely important lens through which to understand the crisis of climate change, and motive to do something about it. A highly important book.”
— Dr. Arlie Russell Hochschild, Sociology, University of California-Berkeley, author of The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (2012), Strangers in Their Own Land (2016), and Stolen Pride (forthcoming).
"Reason, cognition, language, and facts still matter in Feeling Climate Change. But if we want to tackle something as complex and politicized as climate change, we need to also understand that these debates are as much about what we feel in our gut as what we know in our head. I highly recommend this book, as it helps cultivate our collective emotional intelligence."
— Dr. Michael Carolan, Sociology, Colorado State University, author of Society and the Environment: Pragmatic Solutions to Ecological Issues (2020, Routledge)
“In Feeling Climate Change, Dr. Davidson draws from and integrates important areas of research on emotions from across various disciplines, ranging from sociology to neuroscience, and in doing so offers a compelling case for how an emotionality lens can help create meaningful strategies for climate action. Ultimately, this is a book about bottom-up solutions to the climate crisis. It is beautifully and accessibly written, and will work very well in courses and seminars on climate, sustainability, social change, emotions, and other related topics.”
— Dr. Andrew Jorgenson, Sociology, University of British Columbia, co-author of Super Polluters: Tackling the World’s Largest Sites of Climate-Disrupting Emissions (2020).
“Feeling Climate Change is a compelling account of the way emotions affect how individuals, institutions and societies respond to the climate emergency. Davidson offers a pragmatic and personal exploration of our collective capacity to better respond to climate change. Going beyond disciplinary boundaries, the book illuminates an in-depth understanding of the challenges we face. The main thesis is that while humanity may not emerge unscathed, there exists considerable potential to transform our relationship with the planet into one that is more mutually respectful. Davidson offers a thought-provoking exploration that empowers readers to play a vital role in shaping the future, offering hope and a roadmap to transform our current trajectory into one that is more sustainable and equitable.”
— Dr. Emily Huddart Kennedy, Sociology, University of British Columbia, author of Eco-Types: Five Ways of Caring about the Environment (2022, Princeton).
“There have been many publications on climate change in the past two years. Feeling the Climate is certainly one of the most important. The emerging literature on emotions and climate change, to which Davidson has made key contributions, demonstrates emotions matter. Davidson here orchestrates a concerto, showing how the literature on emotions outside of environmental work can be used to better understand emotions around climate change. She also clarifies how emotions work in consort with other factors that have been more extensively studied around environment, such as identity, values, beliefs and norms. This is exactly the kind of synthetic work we need both to advance the science and to offer advice for practice.”
— Dr. Tom Dietz, Sociology and Environmental Science, Michigan State University, author of Decisions for Sustainability: Facts and Values (2023)